The Path Forward for Income Share Agreements
Income share agreements, where payments are based on an individual’s future income, offer a unique opportunity to combat the college-debt crisis and to increase access to post-secondary education, making good on the promise and potential of higher education, workforce development, and similar programs while shifting some of the economic risk of such programs away from students. Such programs have nonetheless drawn the ire of certain consumer groups as well as federal and state regulators and legislators.
Ballard Spahr lawyers who provide legal support for ISA programs (including some of the very first programs) will discuss in detail and critique recent federal and state legal developments where income share agreements have been deemed to be student loans, including: (i) the Better Future Forward consent order from the CFPB, (ii) Illinois’ Know Before You Owe Act, (iii) the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s consent order finding that educational ISAs are student loans under the Student Loan Servicing Act, and (iv) Colorado’s recent announcement to vocational schools that they must register as private education lenders if they use ISAs.